'Can you smell roast chicken?': What Thomson pilot asked passengers after seagulls were sucked into airliner's engine forcing it to return to Britain

An airline pilot asked his passengers if they could 'smell roast chicken' after a flock of seagulls flew into the aircraft's engine. The Thomson holiday jet had just left Cardiff airport when it hit dozens of gulls over the South Wales coast. One hour later the pilot announced to passengers over the tannoy that the plane had been involved in a bird strike.

The announcement was made while the airliner was flying over Switzerland. The plane immediately turned back to Gatwick Airport in London as a 'precaution', a spokesman for Thomson said. Holidaymaker Dan Tyte was one of 300 passengers on the plane headed for Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Mr Tyte, who was travelling with his girlfriend Rebecca, said: 'The captain came on and said: "I don’t know if you can smell what seems to be like roast chicken.

'"We have looked into it and it turns out as we were leaving Cardiff, some seagulls flew into the engine".'

Mr Tyte, who was travelling with his girlfriend Rebecca, said: 'From that it seems like it was quite a dramatic situation.

'But it was handled with such calm assurance by the captain and his crew everyone handled it well. 'The flight itself was really smooth so I suppose safety must come first.'

A spokeswoman from Gatwick said the passengers got off safely and were transferred to another aircraft. A spokesman for Thomson said: 'Thomson Airways is sorry for the delay caused to passengers on board flight TOM532 from Cardiff to Sharm el-Sheikh, which diverted to Gatwick airport as a precautionary measure. 'The decision was taken to divert the plane due to a suspected bird strike. 'The plane landed safely at Gatwick airport where passengers were transferred onto an alternative aircraft to continue their journey to Sharm el-Sheikh. 'Our team at Thomson Airways did everything possible to minimise the disruption to customers holidays and get them on their way as soon as possible.

'The safety of our passengers and crew is of paramount importance and we would like to reassure customers that issues of this nature are very rare.'